Help Through the Wizardnet
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: Harry admits on the Wizardnet that he is diagnosed with a terminal illness. What if a user with the user name Insufferableknowitall read his message and searched for help on the Wizardnet? Set after the war, AU: Epilogue is ignored and Snape alive.


**Help Through the Wizardnet**

Hermione sleepily sat in front of her computer, starting it with a flick of her wand. '_I need to hurry up. I promised Harry to put up the holiday plan in Gryffindor_,' she mused as she slowly got ready for another day as Charms teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, before she returned to her desk and logged in on the Wizardnet. She quickly skimmed the News site, seeing that nothing extraordinary had happened over night, before she turned to the Communication section to see if anyone she knew had written something.

She suddenly became fully awake when she saw that _Little Owl_ had written a longer message during the night.

'_Yesterday, I was diagnosed with a rare magical illness, the Fussilonsis. It's a terminal illness, and I was told I'd only have about three weeks left. Does anyone know anything about this illness and any possible method of a cure, even if I was told at St. Mungo's that there was no cure? I haven't told anyone in real life of it yet_.'

Hermione sat there in shock. She was the only person on the planet who knew who Little Owl was. It was no one else than her colleague Harry Potter, the Transfiguration professor, Head of Gryffindor, and above everything her best friend. Of course Harry had no idea that she had known about his online identity for a long time. '_Harry_!' she thought, terrified. '_Tell me that's not true!_'

On that day, Hermione taught very absentmindedly and even forgot to give the students homework, something that would have upset her badly in her time as a student. By the end of the last afternoon class, she had made a plan. She hurried back into her office and in front of her PC and logged in on the Wizardnet again using her user name _Insufferableknowitall_.

'_To everyone reading this: Does anyone know Severus Snape and can relay this message to him please? Professor Snape, are you around here perhaps, considering that the whole magical world of Britain should be connected by now? We need you. We need your help. Please find a cure for the Fussilonsis during the next three weeks. Please contact me in case I might be able to assist. You should know who I am and where to find me. Remember that you're the best and the only one who might be able to help. Please save my best friend's life!_'

With that she leaned back in her seat, wiping the tear away that was boldly running down her left cheek, and tried to relax, resolving not to tell Ron, her fiancé, about the matter yet.

ネットからの助け

Severus Snape stood in his lab, which was actually a shabby cupboard turned brewing place, and finished the last potion of a few batches that he had promised the apothecary at Diagon Alley for that evening. With a few flicks of his wand, he bottled the potion and cleaned his lab, before he glanced at his watch, deciding that he had enough time to take a break, before he had to deliver the potions.

Severus switched on his computer that looked strangely new in his old fashioned living room at Spinner's End and logged into the Wizardnet only to freeze on the spot when he saw his name. '_My name?_' he thought incredulously and properly sat down to read what it was about.

ネットからの助け

Curfew had just began at Hogwarts, and Hermione was still sitting in front of her computer, totally engrossed in her thoughts and devastated at the news she had read that morning. All of a sudden, a small sound brought her attention to the screen, where an alarm alerted her to the fact that she had received a private message.

'_From Asclepius_,' Hermione read in surprise. '_Could that be...?_' She hurriedly opened the mail and sighed in relief.

'_Ms. Granger I suppose...  
I have invented a potion against Fussilonsis a few months ago; I merely didn't see a reason to make the matter public. However, it takes four weeks to brew. This time could only be shortened if I had an assistant as well as a larger potions lab, which I don't have to my disposal as I cut all my contacts to the magical world after the war except for the apothecaries I am supplying.  
SS_.'

'_Thank God_,' Hermione thought and hurried into the fireplace, shouting, "The Headmistress' Office."

ネットからの助け

'_I wonder for whom that potion is, considering how eagerly Ms. Granger searched for me_,' Severus wondered as he quickly checked for mails on his way into the potions lab the following morning. '_Leave it to Granger to write back immediately_,' he thought as he sat down to read the mail that had arrived 'from Insufferableknowitall to Asclepius'.

'_Dear Professor Snape,  
thank you so much for being willing to brew the potion for Harry. Professor McGonagall offered that we might use the potions lab of your former quarters, and she promised to take over all of my classes, so that I can assist you. When will you be able to arrive at Hogwarts?  
I'm looking forward to assisting you, Professor.  
Yours sincerely, Hermione Granger_.'

'_Hogwarts!_' Severus realised in shock, although the prospect of using his former private lab, his favourite place in the world of all times, seemed extremely appealing.

'_Ms. Granger, expect me around curfew in the Headmistress' office. SS_,' he thought and waved his wand to transmit the sentence to the net, causing a young woman several hundred miles in the north to sigh in relief.

ネットからの助け

"Severus, the magical world has been looking for you," Minerva said reproachfully, offering her former colleague a seat.

"And why might that be?" Severus sneered. "No one should have expected me to be alive at all."

Minerva sighed, before she explained, "Ms. Lovegood, who is Mr. Potter's fiancé, is a Seer, and she has seen you return to Hogwarts as our Potions Master. However, until now no one was able to locate you."

"Leave it to the insufferable know-it-all," Severus mumbled, just when the door opened, revealing Hermione and Harry.

Severus was mildly astonished to notice that neither of them looked much older than he remembered them from their last encounter at the end of the war. He lightly inclined his head.

"Snape," Harry mumbled in surprise. "They finally found you. We need you as Head of Slytherin and Potions professor, sir."

Severus raised an eyebrow at the young wizard. "You could have fooled me here. I'd have believed that you need me for something else, Mr. Potter," he sneered, causing Harry to look around in confusion.

"Harry," Minerva threw in in a soft voice, "Hermione told me everything, and she convinced Professor Snape to return to Hogwarts and brew the potion for Fussilonsis for you."

"She... what?" Harry asked incredulously, looking from Minerva to Hermione, Severus and back.

"Leave it to Potter to announce something on the Wizardnet and still assume no one knew about it," Severus sneered. "In case you believe that there is no cure, there is one, because I invented the potion a few months ago." '_Only because I needed it_,' he added to himself. "Don't get your hopes up too much though. The potion is very complex and if I was brewing on my own, it would take four weeks to brew. Even with Ms. Granger's help, it'll take nearly three weeks."

"Severus, your old quarters are untouched. I merely asked the house-elves to clean them. Feel free to live here as long as you wish, and I'd appreciate if you could at least think about accepting your former positions as Potions professor and Potions Master as well as Slytherin Head again."

Severus gratefully inclined his head without commenting on the matter and turned to Hermione. "Ms. Granger, be in my office at seven o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Yes sir," Hermione replied eagerly, watching the professor leave the room, before she turned to Harry. "Harry, I'm so glad that he came to brew the potion for you, and I promise I'll do everything to get the potion ready in time."

"Thank you, Mione," Harry replied in a small voice. "I still can't believe it. Snape of all people..."

"Now Harry," Minerva threw in sternly, "I'm going to take you to Poppy, and you'll discuss with her in detail what you can do so you'll be able to wait for the potion to be ready."

ネットからの助け

During the following three weeks, Hermione and Severus spent day and night in the potions lab, preparing ingredients, brewing, taking turns sleeping and eating, while the potion had to simmer for a while, and talking. They spoke about everything one or the other could think of, and as much as Hermione felt the pressure of hurrying because they had to be ready in time to rescue Harry, she had never felt so happy and in good company as during these three weeks.

One day, Severus said contentedly, "That's it. Now the potion only has to simmer for five hours. Go and get some rest, Hermione."

Hermione gratefully accepted the offer but asked, "Why don't you lie down for a while too? We can set an alarm clock or ask a house-elf to wake us up."

"I can just put an alert on the potion," Severus replied softly. "I'll take a short nap on the sofa then.

"Are you a vampire?" Hermione asked innocently, causing the Potions Master to raise an eyebrow, before he answered in the negative. "Well, then I don't mind lying down next to each other. Your bed is huge and really comfy."

"Won't your fiancé mind?" Severus queried, quirking an eyebrow in surprise.

"I broke up with him yesterday when I returned to my quarters for a while. During these three weeks, I realised that he isn't the person, whom I love and want to spend the rest of my life with," Hermione said firmly, before she stepped over to Severus and leaned over to capture his lips with hers, smiling when Severus hesitantly responded to the kiss.

"Will you come back to Hogwarts?" she asked later on when they were bottling the potion.

"Well, considering that these quarters are my home and that the woman I love is not only an insufferable know-it-all but also a professor here, I don't have much of a choice, do I?" Severus replied, raising an eyebrow. "First of all, let's go and save the annoying Gryffindor Head's life though."

**The End**

_All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. __I'm not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._


End file.
